Reason to Buy Local/Seasonal #1

I'm sure that somewhere, someone has already put an extensive list together, but this is my list that I'm compiling as we go along this journey, noting the discoveries as they happen.
I often think that my daughter is the world's pickiest eater.  Now, I understand that this is a title that most parents bestow upon their children, so I know that I'm not alone in my desperate search for foodstuffs that she will eat and that I would like her to eat.
After working her way through half of a peanut butter sandwich this evening, she wanted something more but wasn't in the mood to eat the dried cranberries that also graced her plate.
So, I attempted something daring.
"How about a carrot?"
Her response shocked me: "Please."
Heck, yeah!!!!!!  We had just gotten the cutest bunch of carrots from our CSA this weekend - the first ones we've gotten since joining in the late summer, so I grabbed the smallest of the bunch (we're not trying to save the entire world all in one fell swoop, after all) and gave it to her.
She ate it.  The WHOLE THING.
She even deemed it "Delicious!"
Woo hoo!! (insert mommy happy dance)
HRH didn't want more, but she ate that little carrot, and that's a big step.
I had one myself, and it was so good - it tasted like a carrot should taste.  If you have only ever had carrots from the supermarket, you haven't tasted a "real" carrot.  I HATE carrots.  Actually, no.  I hate carrots from the supermarket.  They don't taste good.  They're not fresh.  But pluck a carrot straight from the ground and offer it to me, I'll take it down.  And apparently, so will HRH.

So, reason to buy local/seasonal #1 - my child actually might eat and enjoy it.

When a Friend of Yours Gives You a Bazillion Lemons, Part II

Well, no recipe for the marmalade will be noted in this post... still no luck with that, but hope springs eternal and all that rot.

The girls before the run.
We wore yellow ribbons in our
hair in honor of a co-worker's
 daughter, who is fighting
bone cancer.

This weekend has been filled, although not necessarily with activities (I did manage a nap).  Most notably, though, I completed my first 10K at London's Run.  What an incredible event.  It was intensely moving, and I was honored to play even the smallest part in it.  The courses were covered with inspiring pictures of those who have and are fighting for their lives against cancer, and during the course of my run (the first time I have ever run such a distance), I wasn't tired; those faces (their names unknown to me) kept me from being tired.  I have no excuse to be tired.  I have health; I have an ability to run.  There were a few times that I became nearly too choked up to see two feet in front of me, but even that didn't deter me (thank goodness I was never within two feet of crashing into someone else, too!).
At the end, I still had energy to sprint out the last 200 meters or so (just like I used to tell the kids I coached to do), and I finished in 58:46, a full 3 minutes under my goal of 62 minutes.
After I completed the Undy 5000 last fall, I realized that I am insanely lucky.  I am healthy; my husband is healthy; our daughter is healthy.  I have full mobility and can even run when I want to (even though I never actually wanted to until very recently - shortly before this epiphany, actually).  Certainly, then, I have a duty to put that ability to the best use possible.  I decided, then, to continue running in events in order to help those who aren't able to join me on the road, always hopeful that my efforts, my fundraising, and my pounding of the pavement will make a difference and will help dispel the suffering of others.
Of course, this wasn't a race for me, but it certainly is a race for the children sitting in hospital rooms, and I most certainly will be racing in their stead in the weeks and months to come.

Today, then, I was kind of hoping to sleep in or at least get a good night's sleep.  HRH had other plans, so I was sucking down my creamer-loaded coffee earlier than I had planned this morning.
Nevertheless, it was a productive day.  I was FINALLY able to procure some vanilla beans so that I can make some extract and sugar, and Operation Limoncello has gone into effect.

It's raining lemons!

The first part of making limoncello isn't all that hard, just a little time consuming.  Thankfully, our lemon dealer - I mean friend - Danielle had us over for dinner, so she and I made a project of it, one that we are already planning to repeat.  While Scott picked yet more lemons (and grapefruit!), we filtered our grain alcohol, zested a boatload of lemons, and then juiced those bad boys.  HRH helped with this last step; she was entranced by the juicer.

That's a LOT of zest!

Once the booze was filtered and the zest freed from its lemony captors, we simply mixed the two together, sealed it, and placed it aside.  In 45 days, we can take the next step, which will help take away the "ZOMG" factor of using 190 proof alcohol.
There are recipes out there that call for vodka (100 proof-ish), but my friend's husband, who is from Italy and has family that has made limoncello for years, tells me that the grain alcohol imparts no taste like a vodka might and that the higher proof does something to the lemon and something else technical/science-y that is important to the proper end result.  Of course, the longer we let the finished product sit, the more mellow it will become, so perhaps a bunch of batches this year will mean a lovely, icy sipping liqueur next summer.  If we can wait that long - the summers are long and hot in Arizona.

Up close, the limoncello "starter" looks like
some weird underwater scene.
For now, at least...

Do You Like... Pot Pie???

After I roasted my chicken last weekend, I made a stock from the carcass, a few cloves of garlic, part of an onion, herbs de provence, and a little S&P.  After finishing, I stripped the carcass of any bits left, and I actually got quite a bit, so I decided to make - what else? - a chicken pot pie.
I wasn't quite sure how to do it, but I knew my trusty search engines would never fail me, so the night before we had them, I made another batch of pate brisee.  Have I mentioned that I looooooooooooove my Cuisinart® food processor?????

So, so pretty...
So, so tasty...

Just as I had predicted, I found an absolute slew of pot pie recipes.  MOST of them, though, called for the use of puff pastry, which was just not acceptable to me.  Even less acceptable was that some only called for the pastry to go over the top of the filling.  That's not a pie.  A pie has crust on the bottom.  It might not have it on the top (lemon meringue, anyone?), but it has it on the bottom.
In the end, I basically cobbled my pot pie recipe together from about three or four that were at least "pretty good."  Now, remember, I don't usually measure anything, but I tried to get in the ballpark or at least give descriptions enough so that you might be able to follow what I did (and hopefully I can too, the next time I make it).  Just remember that most of these should probably utilize the suffix -ish.

Chicken Pot Pie
Pate Brisee (one batch should be enough for 3-4 pies) - make this the night before

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter (or salted - whatever you have - who cares?)
• flour (I swear I don't know how much - this is totally an "eyeball" thing)
• 1/4 cup milk (or half & half or cream) - you might need more, depending on your hand with the flour
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 tsp garlic, chopped or minced
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1-2 cups frozen peas, carrots, and/or corn (I would have used fresh were they in season)
• 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped*
• salt and pepper, to taste (I actually didn't use any)

*I had about a cup of chicken left over from the roast, so I sauteed a breast that I seasoned with kosher salt and pepper.  I would highly recommend having more leftover roast chicken.

Preheat oven to 350.  Roll out pastry dough and place into individual, oven-safe bowls or, preferably, tart pans.  Also roll out dough to cover; set aside.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Once melted, add the flour and stir constantly until the consistency is kind of like warm peanut butter (if you use the all natural kind, you're going for the consistency of freshly stirred), but you don't want the butter-flour mixture to really brown; this isn't a roux.  Add the milk and stir for two minutes.  Add the onions and the garlic and cook, stirring, for one minute  Pour in the chicken stock and add the vegetables and chicken; stir to combine.  At this point, if your sauce needs to be thicker, add more flour.  If it's too thick, add a little more stock or milk until you have a creamy sauce, somewhat the same consistency of alfredo.

It made a sinkful of dishes.
Totally worth it.

Pour chicken mixture into tart pans.  Cover with top crust.  Trim edges and crimp to seal.  With a knife, cut some vent holes, brush with a little bit of milk.  Bake for 30-35 minutes (this is a good time to clean all the dishes you will have dirtied).

That evening, I went on my last practice run before London's Run (I'm doing the 10K), so I had to wait until I got back to eat.  Scott, however, ate before I left in order that he could run around chasing HRH, and he thought it was pretty darn tasty (he said it was just as good as the ones we can get at Costco, although I was going for better than that).  Consequently, I was really excited to sit down and eat.
I am super happy that I went with the double-crust REAL pie crust, which totally puffed up just like a store-bought puff pastry would have.  It was buttery and just a perfect match for the filling, which had a LOT more chicken than what you might find in those pot pies in your local grocer's freezer.  The chicken/veggies to sauce ratio was much greater, which made for a more filling meal.
In the future, I would like to add a few more veggies (I used up all that we had) and perhaps add mushrooms.  Scott and I were discussing them, and I said I know mushrooms aren't traditionally in a pot pie, and he replied, "They should be."  I agree - they have a great meaty texture, so I could possibly even sub mushrooms for chicken to make a vegetarian version (I'd also have to use veggie stock, but that would not be tough).
Finally, in my attempt to make less waste, what I SHOULD have done was save the onion and garlic that I used to make the stock and throw that in - while they did go in the compost, they were still wasted, so in the future I'm going to have to be more careful with what I use to make stock and how I use all my ingredients.
I confess that they were so good that I had the third and final one for "brunch" this morning.  Zooey had her nose right in my lap, hoping for a crumb, but I didn't let anything miss my mouth.  And now I'm kind of sad that they're all gone.  Maybe I'll be roasting another chicken sooner than I thought...

Gettin' Siggi With It

I have been wanting to try Siggi's skyr for a good while now.  I know that there is a huge buzz about plain Greek yogurt being one of those "top twenty" or "top thirty" healthy foods that one absolutely must have in the house, but after having seen an episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel on which Andrew Zimmern watches/helps an Icelandic family make skyr, I have been intrigued.
Skyr is a Icelandic yogurt, but it's not anything like your regular supermarket brands.  It is THICK, more like a custard than a yogurt.  In fact, according to the label and website, one container of Siggi's requires three times the amount of milk found in those supermarket yogurt containers.  Wow!
Thus, this little container is packed with protein  that will help keep a person full long after the Dannon® has worn off.
But that's not all.  Some other reasons that Siggi's is way different than other yogurts:

• The milk comes from grass-fed cows.
• There is nothing artificial in it.
• The flavored varieties are sweetened with agave nectar, not sugar or (worse) HFCS
• There are nearly no ingredients - in the plain, three (I'm lumping the five cultures together) - others, up to six.  No multi-syllabic, unpronounceable chemicals.

I loved this - especially the use
of the word dreadful!

All right, but how does it taste?
I bought two containers, as I feel like anything worth tasting needs to be tried twice.  Sprouts had three flavors and the plain.  As much as I felt like I ought to buy the plain (the traditional Icelandic skyr), I was a little nervous and opted instead for the blueberry and the pomegranate and passion fruit instead.
I tried the blueberry last night.  I wasn't sold.  I hate to say it, but the taste reminded me a little too closely of being spit up on by HRH when she was still nursing (especially that one Mothers' Day when we had to take her to Urgent Care to make it stop).  It didn't smell like that in the container - quite the contrary, it smelled like... clean milk.  I can't say that I wasn't disappointed - I was kind of hoping for a gustatory epiphany or something - but I knew I had to give it another try.

THICK!!!!!

Breakfast is, of course, perfect for yogurt consumption, so I didn't wait long to try the pomegranate and passion fruit.  Perhaps it was the different flavoring or perhaps just a different batch, but this time, I got it.  There was a mere hint of passion fruit - not even enough to color it, really - that complemented the thick, custard-like skyr.

Now, let's take a moment and compare Siggi's to the Dannon® company's Activia®.  I'm taking these ingredient lists straight from the ingredient labels.

Ingredients for Siggi's Pomegranate & Passion Fruit Skyr:

• Pasteurized Skim Milk
• Agave Nectar
• Passion Fruit
• Pomegranate
• Live Active Cultures*
• Vegetable Rennet

*Live Cultures: B. Lactis, L. Acidophilus, L. Delbrueckii Subsp. Bulgaricus, L. Delbrueckii Subsp. Lactis, S. Thermophilus

Ingredients for Dannon® Vanilla Activia®

• Cultured Grade A Reduced Fat Milk*
• Fructose Syrup
• Sugar
• (contains less than 1% of the following)
• Fructose
• Whey Protein Concentrate
• Corn Starch
• Modified Corn Starch
• Kosher Geletin
• Natural Vanilla Flavor
• Carmine ("for color")
• Sodium Citrate
• Malic Acid

*Live cultures: L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, Bifidobacterium

Notice that sugar is listed as an ingredient three times.
Why is there regular AND modified corn starch?  Is the natural vanilla flavor from vanilla (just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's from vanilla; the determination "natural" just means it comes from natural sources, not chemically created ones)?  Why do you need to color it?
This really brings me back to what Michael Pollan wrote in In Defense of Food - the fewer the ingredients, the better.  I know what all of the ingredients in Siggi's are.  I can't even get a clear Wikipedia entry for sodium citrate.
What I find even funnier (not funny haha, but funny ironic...) is that there is no proof that the third culture in Activia® helps a person's digestive system any more than cultures found in other yogurts.
If we look further onto the nutrition label, we'll see that Siggi's has 16 grams of protein in that little cup (that's 35% of a woman's RDA); the Activia® has 5 grams.  The Dannon® has 17 grams of sugars while the Siggi's has 11 grams.  I could go on, but I think the point is made.
The Siggi's wasn't inexpensive, but then, nothing that is high quality ever is.  I think I'll stick with my plain yogurts that I sweeten and flavor on my own for the everyday, but when I want to treat myself, I'll make sure to save a little room in the shopping bag for some Siggi's.

"'Get Your Pies for the Great Pie Fight!'"*

Happy (belated) National Pie Day!  When I learned of this (the same way all my other friends did - via NPR), I was furious at not having marked such an important holiday on my calendar with several reminders.
That led to a bit of a scramble.  And not the delicious, eggy kind.
We already had plans to head to Scott's mom's house in the afternoon for a family get together, for which I had volunteered to make a salad.  We had so many greens that we literally did NOT have room in the fridge for them and everything else we already had in there.
There was only one teeny tiny leetle issue.  The outlet in our garage that powered our refrigerator went kaputt, and while Scott managed to run an extension cord to another outlet for the night, he spent all morning going back and forth to the hardware store, trying to get all the necessary items to fix it.  Sadly, it was beyond the capacity at which I was willing to let him risk zapping himself, so we have to call in an electrician.  For the meantime, our temporary fix works, so we didn't have to lose any of the ravioli, stock, or pasties that I had saved.
Of course, while Scott was being Mr. Fix-It, I had to tend to HRH, who was a ball of fire, nearly running up and down the stairs, playing ball, jumping on her trampoline, and generally being full of P&V.  Thus, it wasn't until I was able to put her down for her nap (late, which seems to be her usual anymore) that I could really begin my prep work in the kitchen.
In between stair sessions, I was able to find a recipe for a Shaker lemon pie.  The Shakers were a religious group founded around the time of the Revolutionary War, an off-shoot from the Quakers.  The height of their faith was before the Civil War, and many Shakers (so called because of their practice of shaking when moved by the Holy Spirit), lived in Ohio.
From what I understand, this pie recipe was created after several Shakers made a trip down the Mississippi River from Ohio to New Orleans, where they came across lemons.  Not wanting to waste any of the fruit, they came up with a pie recipe that is not a meringue-like pie but not a custard-like pie, either.  It's kind of a cross of the two, but with a double crust, and the lemons are sliced thinly, as one would apples.

Yes, I totally reused this picture.
But lemons sitting in sugar look
the same as lemons sitting in water.

I didn't want to make a lemon meringue pie (I really didn't feel like tackling meringue in my small window), but I wanted to do SOMETHING, so I thought this was a good plan.
The first step that involves slicing the lemons and having them sit in sugar was easy, and I did that first so that I could meet the minimum time requirement set forth in the recipe that I followed.  Then I made the pate brisee.  I was pretty excited to pull out my new Cuisinart® food processor again, and I was really, really, REALLY pleased with how it turned out.  I mean, I liked this recipe before (I always use it when making fruit pies), but the dough was SO rollable this time, so perhaps my days with the pastry cutter are over (I kind of shudder to think - there is something comforting about such an activity).

Can you believe these are TURNIPS?
How gorgeous are they????

While the lemons were sugaring and the pate briseeing, I threw together the salad.  Everything BUT the green beans (left over from my pickle brine recycling experiment) were from Desert Root Farms.  The star was really the scarlet queen red salad turnip.  This baby came with directions on the label - to serve raw or lightly cooked.  So we followed directions and didn't use them in the latkes the other night, reserving them instead for the salad (they are crunchy and earthy - very nice!).  To that I added dill, and I tossed those three simple items over a mix of spinach, red leaf, and green leaf.

Shake-shake-shake...

Of course, when one is making a fresh salad, it would NOT be apropos to use a bottled dressing (OK, I am a snob; I admit it).  But come on - you already know I have all the ingredients to make a vinaigrette, right?  Lemons, olive oil, mustard, and more dill with just a wee bit of salt, all emulsified with a good dose of elbow grease.
OK, so back to the pie.  Once we were showered and HRH woke up from her nap, we packed up the car (seriously, it was like packing for a three-day trip, and we were driving thirty minutes away) and headed out.  Once at our destination, I rolled out the pate brisee, whisked up some eggs, added them to the lemon mixture, and popped it in the oven.
While it was cooling, everyone ate dinner, and the dressing was used up and the mustard smeared on burger buns.  I am pleased to note that the mustard DID mellow but stayed nice and scharf, a nice accompaniment to a good ol' cheddar cheeseburger.

The air vents were in the shape
of a "T" for Tay's birthday.

I'm not sure how I felt about the pie, but the family SAID they liked it.  It was tart - but it's supposed to be.  I think I might add just a little more sugar AND let the lemons sit at least overnight to mellow out just a little more.  Also, the custard part of the pie didn't totally set up, but I think that's mostly because we didn't let it cool to its optimal room temperature.  All in all, though, this is a recipe I would not mind tweaking to make my own.
The last thing I did before the weekend ended was to make cinnamon sugar, which was not really much of a feat (mix cinnamon and sugar in cannister - shake vigorously - sprinkle on toast/tortilla/spoon), but I was seething from not being able to obtain my precious vanilla beans to make my extract and sugar ("we regret that we are temporarily out of vanilla beans"), so I felt like I needed to do something with sugar to channel that crushed hope in a more positive manner.

*Clearly, I am on a Mel Brooks kick here - this is a line from Blazing Saddles.  If you can't place the line, you need to watch the movie again.

"What's the Matter, Colonel Sanders? Chicken????"*

When I was growing up, my parents often had dinner parties, but even when they had one extra person over for dinner, my dad delighted in making a special occasion out of the meal.
One of the dishes that I remember most vividly is lemon butt chicken.  Yes, I probably remember it because of the name.  It's a simple roasted chicken with lemons as the main accent, but for its simplicity, it can still wow an audience and at the same time be the epitome of comfort.
My dad generally cooked like I do - without following a set recipe.  I can't totally be certain if he followed the same procedure each time he and my mom made this dish.  So, instead of asking my mom what they did, I just went with what seemed right at the time.  There are MANY online recipes for a roasted chicken, some with low heat and some with extraordinarily high heat.  The important thing is to make sure the chicken is properly cooked through - not medium rare, as Scott likes to joke.

with a side of radish-turnip latkes

Lemon Butt Chicken

• One whole roasting chicken (the fresher, more local, the better)
• Two lemons, one zested
• Thyme, chopped or leaves separated from stems
• Kosher salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 stick butter (or compound butter - see below), softened

Preheat the oven to 425.
Make sure there isn't that gross bag of stuff inside the chicken's cavity.  If there is, feed it to the dog.  If there isn't, make sure the dog gets something else for dinner.
Rinse chicken, inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels.

Zest mixture

Combine the zest, thyme, salt, and pepper and rub the cavity of the chicken with the zest mixture.  You can also rub the skin of the chicken with any leftover mixture.
Apply the butter to the breast of the chicken underneath the skin.  You may need to cut the skin a little bit.  If you have leftover butter, you can place it inside the cavity or between the thigh and drumstick or the wings.
Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the onion and lemon.
Place any leftover onion and lemon into a roasting pan and place chicken on top (I put my chicken on a rack in the pan, but I still throw these in - the onions become GREAT snacking as the chicken rests).

The end result

Roast for approximately 90 minutes.  The chicken MUST reach an internal temperature of 180 when a thermometer is inserted between the thigh and the drumstick (I highly recommend a digital thermometer).
Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes.
Carve and serve immediately.

Before mixing

Thyme Compound Butter

• 1 stick butter (I prefer unsalted), softened
• Thyme (to taste)

Mix the thyme and butter until the thyme is evenly distributed.  Spoon into sheet of waxed paper and roll into a log.  Refrigerate until needed; it can also be frozen when proper methods are used.

Of course, you could do this with any flavoring agent.  I will be making dill butter tomorrow with all the dill that we received this week. And I should probably make a garlic butter to have on hand just in case.


The lemon and the butter keep the chicken incredibly juicy.  What is great for our family, right now, at least, is that we can make two meals of this chicken.  I like dark meat, so I had a thigh and drumstick, and Scott had a breast.  The other half was saved, and the carcass will become the base for yet another delicious stock.
I wasn't able to eat chicken when I was pregnant.  I managed to have some fried stuff once (yeah, I know - super healthy, right?), but the thought of having roasted chicken would have turned me green.  I even tried to buy Scott some chicken at the store (he loves chicken, and even on my best day, I'm lukewarm on it), and I almost passed out over my cart trying to purchase it.  That I can roast a chicken AND have the desire to is, to me, a pretty big step, although I am not sure I am keen to do it again any time soon.
The weekend isn't over yet, and I have several new items on my culinary wish list, so hopefully I can squeeze a few more in!

*Quote from Mel Brooks's Spaceballs

Colonel Mustard... in the Kitchen... With the Blender

After my two failed attempts at the lemon marmalade, I thought I should give it a rest for a few days to regroup and find a recipe that might be more conducive to me (i.e., idiot-proof).
I needed something simple to get me through this week, and I noted in my last post that I decided to make my own mustard instead of turning the car around to get a jar at the store.
I wanted a basic mustard recipe, and no matter where I looked, a basic recipe seems to be the same anywhere.

Basic Mustard

• equal parts water and vinegar (preferably apply cider vinegar, but I suppose most would do the trick)
• another equal part mustard seeds (so I had a 1/2 cup seeds, 1/2 cup water, and 1/2 cup vinegar)

Combine these in a bowl and let them sit at room temperature 24-48 hours.

Pretty little seeds enjoying a nice, relaxing soak

After the allotted time has passed, puree the seed-vinegar mixture.

Now, I started out with our "baby" Cuisinart®, but the amount proved just a teeny bit too much, so I switched to the blender, a decision with which I was quite happy.

Once pureed, add spices/herbs/aromatics of your choosing.

I opted for some salt, freshly ground black pepper, cumin, and oregano.  I also added capers and some minced garlic.  No, I didn't measure, so I can't tell you the ratios.  Basically, I added whatever I felt was right.

The finished product is not the most photogenic thing I've ever made, but you know, beauty is only skin deep, and this was rather lovely in its own right.

This made about 3/4 pint, which should last just long enough.  When I tasted it, the mustard had quite the zing. This will mellow in the course of the next few days, but if it turns out to be too mild, I'll just throw in some hot sauce or something (I don't think I'll need to do that).
You know what this would really taste good on?  Homemade pastrami.